Staff Voices: Women empowering women through fashion

The answer to this question was a resounding “Yes!” at a guided tour organized by the UNSRC Sustainable Fashion Society of the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Women Dressing Women”.

The exhibit gives women designers the share of the limelight they so richly deserve.  

The tour was led by “Women Dressing Women” co-curator Mellissa Huber on 25 February. 

“Nothing is more beautiful than freedom of the body,” Coco Chanel once said. She helped liberate women from strict patriarchal fashion rules by giving women’s pants a loose, comfortable shape and thus leveled up women’s freedom.

Garments can empower wearers, even more so for women, especially if the dressmakers are women.

For Mellissa Huber, the Met exhibition helps develop “a third way of looking at the body” against an era when women’s pants were judged by “how socially acceptable” they were.

Each of the pieces from 70 female designers has a story behind it. Be they made by prominent designers or underappreciated ones, whether they were designed for those who are pregnant or have a disability, or if their materials are eco-conscious or contain pro-disarmament messages, they are all “haute couture”. 

The storytelling will continue with a special talk on the exhibition hosted by the UNSRC Sustainable Fashion Society.

About the Author:

Xiaohui Wu is the president of the UNSRC Sustainable Fashion Society. For questions or membership inquiries, please contact: UNS_Sustainable_Fashion_Society@un.org.